Remembering
by QuillPenAndAnInkJar
Summary: When Riley's friend Jordan presents a fantastic opportunity, she and her emotions jump at the chance. But when Joy tells Sadness about something that had happened a few days earlier, she realizes that her own emotions can't be totally hidden - just like a memory can't be completely forgotten. One-shot.


**Hi! This is my first fic, and I'm really excited to share this with the community. I've always loved Inside Out, and I thought of this during the summer. Hope you like it!**

 **(Disclaimer: Disney and Pixar own Inside Out - not me.)**

* * *

A few days after Riley had come home, her new friend, Jordan, was telling her about his uncle.

"He's a director for Pixar! Can you believe it?" Jordan said to her.

"I can't," Riley said. "Which one?"

"Pete Docter," Jordan replied. "He directed Monsters, Inc. and Up."

Inside her head, Joy thought, _Two of Riley's favorites. Sounds like a cool guy._

She pushed a button on the console. It lit up yellow, the sign that Riley was intrigued and excited. A little bit of blue shone through, however – a sign that Riley had some sad moments watching those movies – _Boo and Ellie can never be forgotten,_ Joy and Sadness thought.

"What is he working on now?" she asked.

Jordan wasn't sure. "I think he's doing something about the mind and how it works."

"Is it like a documentary or something?"

Jordan scoffed. "No, of course not. It's Pixar, for Pete's sake - literally. They're going to do something fun with it."

"Can I tell you a secret?" Riley said.

Jordan leaned in. "Sure," he said. "What is it?"

Riley leaned in, whispering, "Whenever we go to a Pixar movie, Mom always makes me bring the tissues. She's still a little traumatized from Ellie."

Jordan laughed. "Oh, Uncle Pete knows Ellie all too well."

Riley (and Joy) laughed hysterically. Sadness took her hands off the console, knowing that this was a happy moment for Riley. Joy couldn't help but feel a little guilty, after what had happened a few days earlier, but she knew that at least Sadness was getting more say in the matter, the console now holding two emotions, even three, and a new console upgrade coming soon, giving all five of them impact at the same time.

Then Jordan got a call. He looked at his phone, and then he burst out into laughter.

"What is it?" Riley asked.

Jordan showed her the screen. "It's Uncle Pete," he said.

Riley burst out laughing (again).

Jordan pressed a button on the phone. "Hello?" he said.

Riley waited patiently as Jordan talked to Uncle Pete. After a while, Anger moved up to the console and pressed a button, making Riley a little impatient. But then, Jordan said something.

"Hey, Uncle Pete, before you go, I have a friend named Riley – Riley Andersen. She just moved to San Francisco, and she just had this whole adventure with getting settled in – it might be something good for that movie you were working on – you know, Inside Out?"

Jordan paused, and Riley could hear the slight sound of talking on the other end – _excited_ talking.

Fear ran up to the console and pressed a button. "Is he saying we're going to be famous? In a movie?"

Joy ran up and pushed a lever up. "Don't worry, Fear. Pixar does animation – not live action. We'll be fine –"

"You want to meet her? Oh, Uncle Pete, that would be great!"

Fear began pressing button after button. "We're going to meet Pete Docter? _The_ Pete Docter? What if he doesn't like us? What if we get starstruck and can't talk? What if –"

"Oh, Fear, quit it with the 'what ifs' or I'll personally make it so you get thrown into Long-Term!" Anger threatened.

"Alright, Anger, no need to be mean," Joy said calmly.

Fear sighed in relief. Joy was the only person who could calm Anger down.

Everyone looked back up at the screen, where they could see Jordan finishing up his conversation with Uncle Pete.

"Alright, I'll get a date set up with her right now! Have a good day. Bye." He took the phone away from his ear and ended the call. He looked right into Riley's eyes.

"How would you like to go to Pixar Animation Studios?" he said.

Joy ran up to the console and turned a dial up to 11, its highest setting. Riley had seen a little bit of the movie _This Is Spinal Tap_ , and the dials had never been the same since.

"Oh, I'd love to!" she said. "But what were you talking about with Inside Out and being in a movie and stuff?"

"Well," Jordan said, "Inside Out is the movie Uncle Pete's been working on. He's been trying to figure out a good storyline, and I think your story would be perfect –"

"Oh, no," Sadness and Fear said at the same time.

"What?" Joy asked.

"I don't want the whole world knowing about us running away," Sadness said. "That would be a nightmare."

"Oh, Sadness, it'll be fine," Joy said. "Besides, you'll get a chance to be at the console a lot – that is, if Uncle Pete gets it right."

"What do you mean?" Sadness said.

Joy paused.

She still hadn't gotten a chance to tell Sadness how she had gotten out of the Memory Dump. She still hadn't figured out a way to get through the tale without crying herself.

"Oh, never mind," Joy said, concentrating on making Riley feel happy about the news that she'd get to visit Pixar Animation Studios.

"Joy, are you okay?" Anger asked, any idea of a joke completely gone from his face. "I've never seen you like this."

"I'm fine," Joy said.

She wasn't fine. But she had to keep herself looking like she was. Otherwise, nobody would know what to do. They couldn't afford to have her leader, the happy one, become a blubbering mess.

"Riley?"

The emotions looked up. There was Jordan, trying to get their attention.

"Sorry," Riley said, taking on a Rapunzel persona. "Lost in thought, I guess."

Jordan understood the reference. He stood up and said, in a Flynn Rider voice, "Am I going to have superstrength in this hand now? Because really, that would be fantastic."

Riley, Jordan, and Joy cracked up.

"See?" Joy said. "We'll be fine."

* * *

When Riley told her parents about Jordan's plan, their faces lit up.

"Riley, that's amazing!" Mom said over the one good pizza place in San Francisco. The family still couldn't believe that one of the two pizza places in San Francisco only served broccoli pizza.

"I know, right?" she said. "And Jordan said that my story about when I moved here might be good for the movie, too!"

"Really?" Dad said. "Well, then, I hope they don't make it _too_ realistic."

Riley giggled. "Dad, you know this is Pixar, right? They make _everything_ realistic. Remember Ellie, Mom?"

Mom put her hands on her hips. "Do I remember Ellie?" she said with a frown on her face. "How could I forget?"

The entire table burst out in laughter. Inside Riley's mind, even Sadness was cracking up.

But Joy wasn't. Any mention of forgetting just made the pain worse.

When the laughter died down, Sadness realized that the color of the console was more of a green than yellow, as if some other color was bleeding into it.

Like blue.

The color of _sadness._

Riley was still excited, but not as excited as she should've been. And that's when Sadness realized that something had happened down in the Dump.

Something she didn't know about.

Something _sad._

* * *

Once Riley was asleep and Anger was set up for Dream Duty, Joy went into her room.

She was laying on her bed, reading a Mind Manual, when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said.

The door opened to reveal Sadness. She walked over to the bed and sat down.

"What happened in the Dump?" she asked.

Joy gasped. "How did you know something happened in the Dump?"

"Because there's nothing else that you could possibly be sad about," Sadness reasoned.

Joy sighed. "It's a long story –"

"It's Bing Bong, isn't it?"

Joy gasped again.

"I'm assuming yes," Sadness said, "judging from the gasp."

Joy slumped down onto the bed, her face buried in her arms.

Sadness hugged her. "What happened down there?"

Joy lifted her head out of her arms. "We found the rocket, and we tried to fly it out twice, but it didn't work. Then, he reached out his hand and said, 'I've got a good feeling about this one.' As we went up, he told me to sing louder. And we finally made it out – except one of us didn't."

"He jumped out, didn't he?"

Joy nodded, tears rolling down her face like a waterfall.

"I don't think he wanted to tell me – he must've thought that I wouldn't agree to it, and if so, then he was right. His weight was dragging us down, and once he jumped out, I made it up. And when I looked back, he was cheering for me, telling me to go and save Riley. Then he stopped. And he said, 'Take her to the moon for me, okay?'"

"And that was it," Sadness said. "He was gone."

Joy nodded again.

Sadness felt tears coming to her eyes. She said, "If he hadn't jumped out, you both would've faded. He knew that it was inevitable at that point."

The fact that there was no way she could've saved Bing Bong, even if she had known what he was thinking, made her feel even worse about the whole ordeal.

"And none of it would've happened if I hadn't been so rude to you," Joy said. "If I had let you put the core memory in, this all would've been fine. He would still be alive somewhere, and…"

"The new console wouldn't have been installed," Sadness said. "It was Riley's confession to Mom and Dad that made it so that we all had a place at the console – not just one of us at a time. If we hadn't gone down there, she wouldn't have needed that confession."

"I know," Joy said, still crying. "But I still miss him."

"Me too," Sadness said.

They hugged each other and sobbed together. Joy knew that even this couldn't make her happy at the end. She felt like Bing Bong after his rocket was thrown into the Dump – and any thought of him couldn't make her happy.

Suddenly, Sadness saw Anger, Fear, and Disgust watching from the still-open door. They hadn't seen Bing Bong in eight or nine years.

But they were still sobbing. They understood the grief, and they understood how horrible Joy felt about it. After the past week, they knew what it was like to feel like something was their fault.

Sadness opened her arm to them, and they joined the hug – a big pile of crying and sniffling.

Joy began to smile, knowing that her friends were there to help her out – even if they hadn't seen him in so long. She realized she could be happy – and she didn't need to hide her feelings from them anymore.

After it all calmed down, Disgust said, "Hey, do you guys want to watch the beginning of Up, the end of Toy Story 3, and all of Bambi?"

Joy couldn't help but giggle.

* * *

The next day, after school, Uncle Pete came to pick Jordan and Riley up for their field trip to Pixar Animation Studios. The best part for Riley was getting to see all the ideas they had for the Inside Out movie. It was cool what they were doing with the emotions' personification. But inside, her emotions were freaking out.

"How do they know?" Fear said. "How could they possibly know?"

"I don't know," Joy said. "But we must act naturally. After all, Riley doesn't know that we know that they know. Okay, that was awkward."

"We get it, Joy," Disgust said. "The masquerade must be upheld - sorta."

"Yeah," Joy said. She sighed.

Sadness walked over and put her hand on Joy's shoulder. "You're still sad from last night, aren't you?"

Joy nodded and wiped her eye.

"Remember, it had to happen that way. It had to be like that…You know what? Maybe we can find a way to get him into the movie, to give him one last day in the limelight."

"But how?" Joy asked. "Riley doesn't remember him – we can't tell Pete about something we 'don't remember.'"

Sadness sighed. These would be a tough few years.

At the end of the festivities, Riley's mom and dad came to pick her up.

"Thank you so much for giving our girl this opportunity," Dad said.

"It's our pleasure," Pete replied. "After Jordan told me about her story, I knew it was the perfect fit for the story we were trying to tell."

"Well, we're just thankful we get to experience it firsthand," Mom said.

"By the way," Pete said, "I was wondering if you had any ideas for what could be in the movie. Maybe something that Riley liked when she was really little."

Mom and Dad thought about it for a second or two. "Well," Dad said, "when she was three or four, she had this imaginary friend named Bing Bong. I can email you a picture she drew of him if it works."

Joy and Sadness looked at each other in amazement. Would it really work?

"Riley, do you remember that? It was so long ago, I'm not sure if you do or not," Mom said.

Joy scrambled through her Long-Term Memory Catalog to see if there was anything about him, hoping that there wasn't. If there was anything, she'd have to recall it – and for the plan to work, she couldn't do that.

There wasn't a single memory about him.

 _Thank goodness for that,_ Joy thought. She pressed a button that made Riley shake her head.

Pete's eyes lit up. "I think I have an idea," he said.

Joy and Sadness looked at each other again. Was this really happening?

"Thank you again for coming, Riley. See you soon!" Pete said.

"Bye, Pete!" Riley called as Pete grabbed his scooter and rode off to a different section of the building.

Joy and Sadness looked at each other once more.

"Sadness," Joy began, "is there anything in the Mind Manuals about going outside your person?"

"I think so," Sadness said. "And, contrary to popular belief – cough, Fear, cough – it's not dangerous at all."

Sadness saw a gleam in Joy's eye. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"I think so," Joy said.

* * *

After a few years, and many absences of Joy in Headquarters, Inside Out was finally finished. 14-year-old Riley was the first to see the film in its entirety.

"Oh, this is going to be good!" Joy said.

"Is it scary?" Fear said. "Because if it's scary –"

"It'll be fine, Fear," Joy said. "It's our life – you'd know if it was scary or not."

Her voice began to crack.

"Joy, it's fine," Disgust said. "We get it. Plus, Sadness finally gets to have a little chance at the console. That's what the movie's about, right? Not being afraid of being sad?"

"I know," Joy said. "It's just…I don't know if I want to see it happening again."

Sadness walked over and put her hand on Joy's shoulder.

"Don't worry," she said. "It'll be fine, Joy."

"Thanks, Sadness," Joy said with relief. Even if she did start crying, she'd have people behind her, helping her out.

"Shut up," Anger said. "It's starting."

"You mean the short's starting," Disgust said. "There's a difference."

"Alright, guys, let's just watch," Joy said. Everyone obeyed instantly.

The short flew by, as did most of the movie. There were a few notable moments (Fear _still_ fainting at the sight of Jangles, and Joy laughing hysterically at the TripleDent Gum ad). But then, Honesty Island crumbled (in the movie), and Fear took the console. Sadness joined him, a sign that Riley was nervous and sympathetic.

Once the on-screen Joy and Bing Bong had fallen into the Dump, Anger said, "I think Fear and Disgust and I should give you guys some time together for this scene." They began to climb up the stairs to their rooms on the second floor of Headquarters.

And then they gasped.

Because just behind Joy and Sadness, a very familiar outline was forming.

Joy was already crying, and Sadness was getting close. They were so involved in the movie, they didn't even notice the tapping of feet behind them.

"Do you think they got it right?" Joy asked.

"I think so," Sadness said. "You left your person to make sure that it worked perfectly – I think they took your thoughts on that scene into great consideration. You deserve it."

On-screen, Joy had just gotten the idea of using the rocket. "Who's your friend who likes to play?" she sang.

Bing Bong continued, "His rocket makes you yell hooray?"

And the unmistakable tune that they would've sung with "Bing Bong, Bing Bong" played. The scene got a little brighter, and Joy knew to put a bit of input into the console.

But Sadness noticed that the console looked slightly green again, like her powers were bleeding into it. It was a little bit easier for Sadness to handle this time, because she knew that there was a definite reason to the bittersweet green glow of the console.

Anger, Fear and Disgust were still looking over the edge of the stairs, watching as the outline gained a pink color – kind of like cotton candy. The legs became orange and yellow. And what none of them could see was something happening outside of Headquarters that had never happened before – memories, waterfalls of beautiful memories, flowing out of the Dump.

The movie continued.

Bing Bong, on-screen, helped Joy up after their second attempt to escape the Dump. "Come on, Joy, one more time," he said, and Joy and Sadness (in real life) could hear the resignation in his voice. "I've got a good feeling about this one."

Sadness had taken complete control of the console at that point – Riley was missing Bing Bong. She knew she couldn't get him back – not anymore. She knew what was happening. But she wished with all her might that it didn't have to – or that it could be reversed.

The rocket had been set up one more time, and as it rode the waves of forgotten memories, Bing Bong urged Joy to sing louder, and louder, and louder, before jumping out.

Both Joy and Sadness were crying on the floor at this point. Sadness's arms were just long enough to reach the console and turn the dials up to 11.

Behind them, the silhouette became clearer and clearer to read. A pink trunk was now distinguishable. And a hat. And eyes – beautiful, hazel eyes, watching the movie with amazement. And a flower on the outline's vest – with six petals, one for each color of the rainbow. Its gloves had holes in the fingers – well, its right glove did. Its entire left arm was gone, as if it had faded into the Dump itself. But as Anger, Fear, and Disgust watched, it grew back.

By this time, Joy was able to pick herself up off the floor and watch. On-screen, Joy was cheering – until she realized that one of the pair hadn't made it out of the Dump. She ran back and watched Bing Bong cheer that Joy had made it.

Riley was sobbing at this point. She knew what would happen – and that, according to this story, it was irreversible. But she wasn't sure. Maybe, she could influence the decision of the Dump. She couldn't be sure – but it never hurt to try.

As Sadness pushed more buttons and pulled more levers and turned more dials, Riley wished with all her might that she could undo the wrong that had been done – and bring Bing Bong back. Not for herself, but for her emotions. She didn't know if they existed, but if they did, she wanted him back. She wanted them to have a friend.

In the same second, Joy, out of her crying spell, heard a little bounce next to her. When she looked down, there was a piece of candy. A caramel, to be exact.

She picked it up and looked back at the screen.

Bing Bong (on-screen) was still cheering. "Go!" he said. "Go save Riley!"

Then he stopped moving as his bottom disappeared.

Joy prepared to commence sobbing again.

Bing Bong said, "Take her to the moon for me, okay?"

But there was another voice saying it at the same time. A man's voice that sounded exactly like Bing Bong on screen. But behind her.

Anger, Fear, and Disgust were flabbergasted. They watched as the outline – now fully formed into a living being – said, "Joy? Sadness?"

Joy and Sadness turned – and saw someone they'd never expect to see again saying, with candy tears in his eyes, "Thank you."

It was Bing Bong.

The two of them ran as fast as their little legs could go and hugged him fiercely. He hugged them back, saying, "Watch the tail, will ya?"

"I'm sorry I never got Riley to the moon," Joy said.

"Don't worry, Joy," Bing Bong said, kindly and sincerely. "This is better."

Joy looked up from the embrace and saw Anger, Fear, and Disgust still looking over the staircase, their mouths wide open.

"Come on down, you guys," she said.

And the three of them ran down to get a little taste of such an amazing, heartwarming, _unforgettable_ hug.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this! I had always wanted to see Bing Bong come back in some form, but I didn't want to dishonor his sacrifice. Having Riley see the movie was a perfect way for me to do that.**

 **Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. Thanks!**


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